Thoughts on STO

Captain's Blog Stardate 90622.81

This has been such a slow week for STO, although I really shouldn't complain since we did just celebrate the new year. Next week things should go back to normal.

So I have a question for all of you this week, why do you think of the current state of STO? Now I'm not asking if you like it, because on some level you obviously do otherwise you wouldn't be playing it. What I want to know is, what do you think about the game the way it is now? For those of you that have been playing for a while, is it getting better or worse? Those of you who just joined, did it meet your expectations? This game has such a wide variety of players that I'd really like to get an idea of what a lot of people think.

I know the game has improved a lot over the past few years and a lot of older players will agree. Do I think it's perfect? Not in the least. One of my biggest issues with STO and Cryptic is that they are constantly moving forward and forgetting about the past. For example, the new missions have cut scenes including Into the Hive and Hive Onslaught. If you go back and play the older missions that were out when the game was released, they don't have this.

Alright, alright, maybe a handful of them do but that is only because Cryptic revamped those missions. I assume it has to do with money; there probably isn't much profit in going back and working with the older stuff. Still, I would love to see it happen.

Putting that on the side along with the bugs, this game is pretty good. I better say it's good because I've been playing for 3 years! haha! I do like that Cryptic continues to release updates for the game and that there is a whole universe to explore with the foundry. I love the variety of ships, equipment, uniforms, etc. The storyline is real good and I'm extremely interested in seeing where it goes from here. There is so much to this game that it sometimes blows my mind haha.

Well that's all for today. Don't forget to let me know what you think of STO.

Written by Attilio on January 06, 2013 at 09:58 pm

Comments

Warburton1881(Member) said...January 07, 2013 at 01:48 am

As an almost two year veteran, I can definitely say that, overall, the game is getting better. Sometimes, it's been two steps forward and one backward, but sooner or later most of the detrimental changes have been dealt with. the recent change in "Investigate Officer Reports" is a prime example. In the old system, you could do "instant missions" to gain Dilithium by simply clicking a button. Then Cryptic took away that ability and, at the same time, increased the Dilithium cost of many aspects of the game. It became frustrating to need Dilithium for almost everything and to have no ready source of it. Just about the time I was ready to send them a nasty note about it, they changed it again and let you do twenty minute missions for Dilithium with no limit on the number of missions you could run in a day. The new system is great. I'm happier with it than with the old system, which I always felt guilty about using.
Similarly, I hate the Dilithium requirement for crafting at Memory Alpha. However, I recently discovered a Foundry mission that gives the maximum loot allowed by the Cryptic rules, approximately fifty items a day. That includes everything from cheap ship devices to expensive Blue Mark XI ship equipment. The mission can take less then thirty minutes to complete. By selling the stuff I don't need, I can purchase anything I want on the Exchange,so I no longer miss being able to craft and if I decide I need something that costs too much on the Exchange I can use the Dilithium from "Investigate Officer Reports" to pay to craft it at Memory Alpha.
As a life member who bought in when the price was at its peak, I suppose I should be jealous of the F2P players who got into the game for free. I'm not. Having more players opens up a lot more activities for all of us. It also indirectly generates revenue for Cryptic as the F2P people buy occasional items on the C-Store that the paying people are getting as part of their subscriptions.
Is Star Trek Online my favorite MMORPG? Yes, absolutely. Do I feel it's better than when I joined two years ago? Yes, absolutely. Do I have pet peeves about the game? Yes, absolutely, but most of my pet peeves have been either eliminated or mitigated. If I had a time machine and could go back to 2011 knowing what I know now about the game, would I have bought it? You bet!

Well, I'm a Star Trek Fan for as long as I can remember. When I first got news about STO, I was exited, yet disappointed, as it was not available in Europe at first. When it became availabe, I was disappointed again, as you needed to subscribe. Imagine my excitement, as I learned STO goes F2P.
So I finally, got the chance to play STO "without any risk". I loved it instantly. The combination of Ground and Space missions are overwhelming at first. It felt like it would take forever to play. Little did I know, how quickly I would reach the Level Cap. When I tried the Klingon Faction, I was a bit disappointed about the few missions available. I'm still disappointed, that Cryptic does not add more content for the KDF. I think, that is the reason, why I neglected my KDF Toon so soon. Missing KDF Content aside, I'm glad how the Game developed. Witnessing Seasons 6 and 7, I'm happy that Fleets got their share and that Fleet Holdings were established. I don't know about you, but I think that got Fleets more closer. At least, that what I think and being a Team player by default, I contribute everything I can to the Fleet Holdings, just to see to progressing. I like Season 7, because now I finally got the chance to get some of the fancy MACO / Omega Ground Gear. And I like it because of Mol'Rihan. The Planet is amazing and exploring it, was/is fun.
However, the raising need of Dilithium is going to be a problem. Although I like the implementations of real-life economic principles in the Exchange as well as in the Dilithium Exchange, the Dilithium rate is at an ridiculously low end. And I think, Cryptic has to do something about it or we will end up with rate of 1 ZEN per Dilithium in the long-term. In regards of Dilithium, I'd like to see a raise of the daily refinement limit. May to 10k or 12k Dilithium a day.

All in all, I have faith in the game. So much, that I took the opportunity to become a life-time subscriber, when the LTS was on sale in November. So I've been stuck with the game for a little while longer. :)

Pretty new to the game, only a little over a month. I honestly didn't realize it was a F2P when I bought the Steam bundle :P

I like the game structure and, ya, the missions get redundant but they are just long enough to get my attention and just short enough to not make me hate them. I suppose that's why I played a hell of a lot of League of Legends for a long time.

While I like the fleet system, I can't imagine how hard it is to have a smaller fleet in this game. Those upgrades must take months. It does encourage community a bit more, but it's a bit forced and that doesn't seem right.

I like the dilithium exchange rate atm but I know it's due to the wrong reasons.

The game seems much more polished than it's initial release and that's good. I think they need to maybe slow progression slightly and add more story based missions. The Foundry seems to have 2 settings, no rp element at all or WAY too much. I've spent 2 hours playing one mission with 2 ship combats in it (and those sucked, 2 cubes and a sphere for solo.. c'mon) and i've played in one that gave me all my dominion accolades from 0 to max in one half hour sitting.

I don't pvp at all (got tired of watching people cheat in other games) so I know nothing about that system. I think I did it once on accident.

But anyway, I think time will tell if I stick with it. But honestly, it's free so I don't have the urgency to get things done super fast.. other than that Chel Grett :P

I've been a lifelong Star Trek fan so when I had the resources available, it made sense for me to start playing this game.

Been playing for just over a year, and I really like the various changes and improvements they have made to the game. Overall, I feel it is going in the right direction.

I would love to see more Featured Episodes (as they feel very 'Star Trek'), but I understand that new content has to be balanced with other elements in order to make the game profitable.

I disagree with Emperor that the game is not F2P. Of other games I've played, STO offers a lot with absolutely no financial investment and I fail to see how it could be considered P2W. I don't know what aspect of the game would be considered 'winning'. There is nothing, in my experience, that cannot be completed with any of the free ships, equipment etc.

Joined the game the weekend after Thanksgiving 2012. I've already pegged L50 and started working on Mol'Rihan! Never hit an RPG that leveled out that fast before.
Managed to collect the Breen warship from the Holiday event as well. I have thrown some $$$ in and if I'm still reasonably addicted by March I'll probably pick up LTS.

Not a big PvP fan so that is not really a non-issue for me. I'll wander into it some, but not often.

Amusingly, it seems as though reaching L50 is almost a prelude to digging into the rest of the game. That's a different approach from other games, but that's ok. At this point I have plenty to do between assisting my fleet starbase and working on the Romulan side of the game. Hopefully this game will last.